I Can't Kill You
by Hisa-Ai
Summary: Secrets are uncovered and lives may be lost. People's destinies intertwine and are not to be taken lightly. Journeys are put on hold and the world seems to hold its breath as it waits for news of their deaths. Things aren't what they seem. InuKag. On Hiatus.
1. Brought Up That Way

ICKY was originally posted on 1/8/11 a few months ago, but I had a thought that took this story in a whole new direction, and instead of just going back and updating all the chapters, I decided just to take it down and start fresh. Things are definitely going to be different, but still kind of the same. I'm sticking with my original plot and characters, I'm just... Moving some things around and throwing in a few more twists. Plus, with my OCs and their background stoires, I figured why tell when I can show? That's the thing about being a writer, sometimes you have to know when to show and when to tell, and I was telling when I so clearly should have been showing. Anyway, here's what I posted when I posted on 1/8/11, following that will be changes I've made, then the QOTD and SOTD, the disclaimer, then chapter one of the new and improved I Can't Kill You-ICKY for short-and an A/N:

"It's a new year and I've decided to do things differently this year. For starters, I'm not going to worry about what others think of me or my work. I'm going to do things at my own pace and in my own way. I plan on working on multiple stories at the same time so not everything will get updated _at _the same time. I'm going to work on what I want to work on when I want to work on it, I'm going to make it as long or as short as I want to, I'm not going to check my traffic, I'm going to write the stories I want to write, and not focus on my readers. I don't know how that comes across to those of you reading this right now, but I think that writer's write better when they write for themselves... I honestly don't know where I'm going with this, but rest assured, I will write to the best of my ability and proof-read everything three times at least before I even think about posting it. That being said, I _am _still human so I _will _miss things and I _will _make mistakes, but when/if I catch them, I will fix them, so do me a favor and don't bitch about grammar or spelling or punction mistakes, it won't make much difference if I myself don't catch it.

Now that I've got that out of the way, here's something else you probably don't need to know but that I'm going to tell you anyway:

Every day I am going to have a word of the day, a song of the day, and a quote of the day.

My word of the day isn't going to be like you'd expect a word of the day to be, it's going to be a word that I select randomly from my pocket dictionary then write for a half-hour about/around. Now, while what I post may or may not be based on that word of the day, I've never been very good with chapter names, so for multi-chapter fics, I'll be naming the chapters after my word of the day, and if I update more than one multi-chapter fic a day... I guess those chapters will have the same names.

My song of the day will be the first song I listen to after I wake up, and my quote of the day will be a quote that I really like. It's very likely that I'll state what my quote of the day is and you'll recognize it from my profile.

I will state all three before the disclaimer of each chapter/story I put up here, and maybe on Fiction Press, too, I'm not really sure yet.

I don't really know what I can tell you about this story without giving too much away. I have a few OCs in it, a few love triangles-I'm not sure why they're called love triangles since most of the time one side is left open, but whatever, _who am I_?-and a few things that are-I hope-unexpected. That's what I try to do with my writing sometimes, throw in the unexpected, that is. I go back, read what I have done so far from an outsider's POV, and see where I'm expecting it to go, and take it in the opposite direction. Other times, however, the expected is good, the expected gives you hope. And sometimes the expected turns out to be what you were expecting all along. Now I'm looking at the word "expect" and how many times I've typed it and for some reason, I don't think I spelled it right. I know I did, but it just looks wrong, so I'm going to stop using that word before I go completely nuts.

I started out with this with the idea that Naraku is trying to kill InuYasha so he can consequently get to an emotionally unstable Kagome and get her shards of the Shikon no Tama from her so he can be more powerful. But the thing about writing is that you can start out with one little sentence, and the very last sentence is one-hundred percent not what you originally had in mind. What I'm trying to say is: I had one story idea in mind, and it turned into this. Now this isn't so bad, in fact, it's a little better than what I started out with, and yes, I've had to tweak a few things, and no, I'm not done with it, I still have a lot to get typed out, but this is a good starting point.

And for you smart-asses who would love to point out that Naraku is no longer, and neither is the Shikon no Tama, and everyone pretty much got their happy ending: This takes place before the end of the manga. I don't have an exact location or issue number for you, but somewhere in the middle-towards the end-ish...

Hmm, I believe that's it for now..."

Most of that is still true, except for the Word of the day thing. I'm still doing one, I'm just not gonna make it the title of the chapters for ICKY. I'm not even going to include it in the chapter. No, instead, I'm going to make my SOTD the title of the chapters for ICKY. Any objections? No? Good.

**Song of the day 4/5/11:** "Brought Up That Way" By Taylor Swift.

**Quote of the day 4/5/11:** "Never trust a grown man who says "LOL"."

**Disclaimer:** I don't own InuYasha. I'm not that good at drawing things and I honestly wouldn't have thought him or his story or anything up. And if I _did_ own InuYasha... Things would be different. _Oh_, would they be different...

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><p>In the middle of the night in a dark castle illuminated only by a cresent moon, Naraku sat with an evil smile and mailce in his eyes as a girl kneeled before him. Though all that could be seen of her in the darkness were her blood-red eyes, Naraku had seen her face only hours ago when the battle, as it were, had taken place. When he'd found out about this girl, he'd just <em>known <em>he had to meet her-What better way to get to InuYasha, after all?-and so he had her watched. He studied her every move, learned who she cared about, how she fought, what she was after, what her goal was... He knew every move she made when she made it. And then he used this new-found knowledge to set up a trap for her.

Remembering it, he smirked into her eyes, she had absolutely no idea what was happening until it was too late. That was good for him, good for his plan. Not so good for her, of course, but hey, he didn't care, he was Naraku; it wasn't his job to care.

Still, he did have some pity for the girl that kneeled before him, it wasn't entirely her fault she had been so easy to manipulate, so easy to capture; she didn't choose to have that human blood course through her veins. If it weren't for that fact, he'd almost say she was... Well, pretty. And strong, and brave, and maybe not such a worthless half-breed...

"Can you kill InuYasha?" Naraku questioned, mainly to distract himself from where he was afraid his thoughts were going. It was queer thinking like that, he thought his human heart only had feelings for Kikyou, and he had sealed that away eons ago. What was going on here?

The girl's eyes flashed to purple and she fell forward; three Shikon no Tama shards were embedded in her to keep her under his control and she was still able to fight it!

"No... I cannot kill NuYa..." She muttered, almost as though she was in pain. She balled her hands into fists and hugged them to her chest as she curled up into a ball right there on the floor in front of the bastard. Even if it killed _her_ she would not lay a finger of ill-intention on him. She would fight this with every fiber of her being and she would not go anywhere near anyone she loved until she took care of this punk. She would not lose, not to this guy.

Naraku narrowed his eyes and regained his hold on her, causing her eyes to flash back to the unnatural shade of blood red that usually signaled her losing control to her demon side, but in this case signified her will being under Naraku's control. She was going to be a tough one to control for long, so if he wanted to do this, he had to do it fast before she broke his hold again.

All he needed was for her to take care of InuYasha, and he could handle the rest, because once InuYasha was out of the way, Kagome would be vunrable in more ways than one. She would be the one he would have to take out immediently, for he had heard the wind whisper that she was capable of trancending time and traveling to a place that was beyond his reach, and if she escaped there with her shards of the Shikon no Tama, he would not be able to complete it and gain all that power. He wasn't an idiot, after all. He knew that if InuYasha was gone and she knew Naraku was trying to take her shards, she probably wouldn't come back anytime soon, and that was _not _an option. So he asked again as she returned to her kneeling postition before him almost as though she hadn't refused him a moment ago, almost as though she hadn't just humiliated herself by showing such weakness, almost as though she respected him:

"Can you kill InuYasha?"

And then she answered in a cold voice, almost as though she had forgotten everything that mattered and everyone she cared about. Almost as though Naraku had truly bested her:

"Of course, Master." He chuckled evily at her words. Once InuYasha heard her talking like that, once he saw the coldness and distance in her eyes, once she tried to kill him, once he realized what happened and what was going on, his heart would break, but even then he wold not be able to bring himself to take her down, and as a result, he himself would perish.

And who knows, maybe after all was said and done, he would allow her to keep her life; she seemed to be growing on him. She would have to remain under his control, of course, lest she try and kill him. If she tried to kill him after the job was done, he'd definitely have to kill her, and he didn't want to do that. No, he wanted to keep her around for as long as possible, maybe one day he'd even mark her as his own. That didn't seem to be a thought Naraku would normally have, but...

The girl that kneeled before him...

Maybe she wasn't your ordinary hanyou. Maybe there was something else to this girl's story that not even Naraku's stalking could figure out...

Maybe...

No, he had her under his control, there was no need to worry about that.

Still...

She should be watched. Lest she betray him as Kagura, and even Kohaku had in the past. Her betraying him, him losing his control over her, would make him angrier than all of Kagura's feeble attempts at freedom and Kikyou still being alive combined ever had.

"Good, then go. Hunt him down and stop at nothing to kill him. Make sure his blood paints the girl he's with. Make sure she sees you kill him. Make sure she doesn't get out mentally unscratched. And make sure he doesn't see it coming. Do you think you can handle that? Or do I need to send help with you?" No matter what she said, he was still going to send someone with her. Kagura, to be exact. Although he trusted Kagura about as far as she could throw him, he knew she would obey orders this time. Because this time, he was offering something she had always wanted, something she was after, something oh so very important to her: Her freedom. If she went with this girl and made sure she killed InuYasha, he would give her her heart back and she would be free. Now who would turn that down?

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><p>Uh-oh, what's wrong with Naraku? He seems to be taking a liking to this girl who's name I don't think I've mentioned yet. But how is that possible? He's <em>Naraku. <em>How do you think it's possible? Hmm, how curious...

Anyone care to guess how this girl knows InuYasha and what she is to him? Will the answer upset Kagome? Will she sit him for it? I would, I'd abuse the fuck out of being able to do that.

Everytime InuYasha came within ear-shot of me or did something I didn't like or disagreed with me or even looked at me funny I'd be all: "Sit! Oh, you think that's-sit-funny? Well-sit!-I-sit!-don't-sit!-think-sit!-it-sit!-is!-Sit! Sit, sit, sit! Do you-sit-think-sit-_this_-sit-is-sit-funny? Sit, sit, sit!" Seriously, I'd be able to entertain myself for hours doing that.

I'd abuse that, I would. I don't have anything against InuYasha, it's just Kagome doesn't do that often enough, and I like it when she does. If that were me-which, sadly, it isn't-I'd do things differently than Kagome does. How so? Let's just say: He's lucky that isn't me. He's lucky Kagome's in love with him. He's also lucky that no one else but Kagome can do that to him, otherwise...

Anyway, there's no InuYasha or Kagome or anyone but Naraku and this girl in this chapter, and I hate Naraku just as much as I hate Kikyou, but I had to put this chapter in; I just needed him to get the ball rolling, if you will.

Anyway, Peace out

~Hisa-Ai~


	2. Not That Far Away

**SOTD 4/8/11: **"Not That Far Away" By Jennette McCurdy

**QOTD 4/8/11**: "I have great faith in fools-self-confidence my friends call it."

**Disclaimer: **I do not now, nor have I ever or ever will, in any way, shape, or form, own anything that has to do with the genius that is InuYasha. If you're looking for the person who does, Rumiko Takahashi is somewhere in Japan...

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><p><em>Everything was foggy. Everywhere InuYasha looked all he could see was thick, murky fog. It clouded his vision, it clouded his senses, hell, it even clouded his brain. He didn't know where he was, he didn't know what he was doing, and he didn't know <strong>who<strong> he was. All he knew was that this wasn't right._

_He inhaled, hoping that he'd smell something that would tip him off, tell him something, but all he got was thick, stale air. He let out a low growl as he turned his ears forward in complete attention, trying to hear something. His instincts were telling him, screaming in his blood, that something wasn't right, that he needed to be on alert. But why? All that he could see was the fog. All that he could smell was the thick, stale air; all that he could hear was his own heart thudding in his ears. Beneath his feet, he was aware of soft, bumpy ground, but that didn't tell him anything, for even in this state of not knowing who he was he still somehow knew that most ground was like that._

_Glancing up, he noticed a small opening in the fog where the sun was just barely shinning through, and suddenly he was filled with a sense of panic, suddenly he **needed **to know where he was, what he was doing, and who he was. But how could he figure those things out when the only thing he could see was a small bit of the blue blue sky?_

_InuYasha turned his attention to the fog in front of him again, if he was going to figure this out, he might as well start by going forward. He unsheathed the sword that hung at his side-what was it's name again?-and held it between his clawed hands, as it transformed from a scrap of metal into a great sword shaped like a fang. Whoa, now **that's **a sword worth using! He thought to himself, slightly pleased that it had transformed just when he was thinking that a scrap of metal would be of no use to him._

_But why did it transform? He was a hanyou, right? So why did he need a sword? Couldn't he handle himself without one? Did he have others to protect? Impossible; nobody like hanyous, so why would he bother protecting those who didn't like him? __But when he thought about it, it seemed right on the mark. Something, in the very back of his mind, told him that he had people who cared about him, people who he cared about and had to protect, and that he had one person in particular that he **had** to protect with everything that he had and more. One person who he would give his life for. One person he loved more than anyone or anything else... But what was her name?_

_He let out another growl and gripped the Tetsusaiga-for he was sure now that that was what it was called-before calling out "Windscar!" and letting loose the awesome attack. How had he known to do that? He was sure it was supposed to do something, he was sure it should have cleared away some, if not all, of the fog. But it hadn't. And, surprisingly, that didn't make him angry; it just filled him with a sense of dread. A feeling that he'd be stuck in the middle of all that fog forever, never knowing who he was, where he was, or what he was doing. It made him feel like giving up and taking his own life with the worthless piece of junk he was holding in his hands._

_"Ha! Like that'd work," a voice in the back if his head sneered, "You couldn't even clear away a little fog, what makes you think you'd be able to take your own life? Face it, you're worthless! Nothing but a poor little hanyou nobody wants anything to do with! It's no wonder everyone you've ever cared about has either left you or died! And soon enough, your so-called "friends" will want nothing to do with you! Even that girl who promised to stay by your side forever will eventually leave. And why wouldn't she? She has no connection to you, there's no blood between you, and she's not your mate, you're just her trained guard dog, kept around to keep her safe and alive. Eventually, she's going to tire of your attitude and leave, find herself a nice boy who actually gives a crap and settle down. Maybe that wolf guy who keeps coming around, I get the feeling she's attracted to demon-blood. If you couldn't even keep your own damn sister around, what makes you think you'll be able to keep this girl around?"_

_He stood, his shoulders slumped, and just listened to the voice mocking him; he deserved it. He couldn't remember anything at the moment, but he got the feeling the voice was right; if he couldn't keep his own sister around, how could he expect to keep some random girl around? Nothing mattered anymore. Nothing. He glanced out at the fog, the feeling of dread replaced by a feeling of self-pity, he was destined to die alone, and he prayed death came quickly; he couldn't bear this for much longer. That voice would either drive him to suicide, or send him into a blind rage, neither of which seemed like very good options._

_Staring at the murky fog, he noticed it started to part, revealing a path for him to walk along. So he put his sword away and, ignoring the voice yelling at him to just lie down and die, started to walk along it, wondering where it would lead him. Maybe to some answers, he hoped._

_He walked along the path for a long time, the fog closing in on him from the sides and from behind, so he couldn't turn back even if he wanted to, though in the back of his mind, he really didn't want to. He could only go forward, and for a long time, he did. He walked along that path, not knowing where it was leading him or what kind of path it was-Was it straight or did it wind around? Was it wide or narrow? Was it even a path? Or was he imagining things?-until eventually he came to a clearing._

_He looked out at it, seeing only grass and trees at the sides, the fog suddenly no longer there, gone with that nasty voice. He looked up and saw the gray sky that looked like it could start pouring rain upon them at any given moment, and the slight shadow of the sun. Why was he here? What business could he possibly have in the middle of a grassy clearing?_

_Suddenly he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and looked back down, before him was a girl in a casual light pink kimono with a dark red haori draped over her right arm. On her left arm was a fresh gash, oozing bright red blood and dripping onto the ground. Her purple eyes were moist, like she wanted to cry but wouldn't allow herself to do so. She had long silver hair that almost reached the ground, and atop her head sat two dog-like ears, similar to the ones that sat atop his own head. Her claws were clenched into her palms, breaking the skin slightly so a tiny sliver of blood trailed down her fingers onto the ground beneath, staining the light green grass a beautiful yet ugly shade of red. Who was she? And why did she look so familiar?_

_A boy landed behind her, he was draped all in a red, that is, a red haori and a pair of red hakama. His eyes were amber, his hair was the same silver shade as the girl's was, only his stopped around his lower back. And the white dog-like ears atop his own head matched those of the girl's as well. He came to a complete stop and started panting, like he'd been chasing her for a while and had only just caught up with her. On one of his long claws was a streak of blood, and something-though clearly not his sense of smell, as that was still not working; Though the fog was long gone, all he could smell was stale air-told him that blood belonged to the girl and that he had caused the deep gash on her arm._

_"Meko, I'm sorry!" The boy began, still slightly panting but wanting to make his case before she took off again. The only reason she had stopped, InuYasha thought to himself, was because the gash in her arm had began to hurt and she had to stop, otherwise he was sure she would have kept running. How did he know that? Why did he care? "It was an accident!"_

_"NuYa..." the girl sighed, sending a flash through InuYasha's mind. Suddenly, InuYasha's breath caught in his throat as he recognized the scene that was playing out before him and everything came rushing back, his name was InuYasha, he was a hanyou, the bleeding girl before him was his sister, and the boy was a slightly younger him._

_"Meko, please, just listen to me!" The younger InuYasha begged the girl as she walked forward, clenching her teeth together. He remembered this, all of this. How badly he wanted to speak out, yell at the younger him for being such a moron, but he couldn't. Try as he might, his mouth just would not move, so he had to stand there and watch the scene play before him, unable to do anything to change it. The girl, Kameko, walked forward and stood mere inches in front of the older InuYasha. They couldn't see him, could they? No, if they could, they'd be demanding to know who he was and why he looked like the slightly younger InuYasha, he knew they would; he knew himself, and he knew his sister. They couldn't see him, smell him, or sense him; it was like he wasn't even there. But he was, and he knew every word of what they were about to say._

_"NuYa, nothing you have to say right now can change anything," She said softly, her sad, sad words ringing in InuYasha's ears like little delicate bells singing on the wind. He wanted to scream at her: "Yes, it can! Just listen to me! I know I'm an idiot, I know I'm screwing up, but I don't mean what I'm about to say! Please forgive me; I never meant to hurt you..." He wanted to reach out and give her a hug, but when he extended his arms to try to do so, his hands slipped right through her. He drew them back sadly, what exactly had he been expecting? He reached one of his hands out and stroked the air just above her hair, he knew the feel of it anyway, and didn't need to actually be able to touch it to feel something. He'd stroked her hair since the day she was born, and his fingers knew every inch of it-in a brotherly way, of course-so it didn't matter that he couldn't touch it right now, he was just glad to see her again, albeit not under the most pleasant of circumstances._

_"Stop being such a baby, Meko," The other InuYasha hissed at her sharply, making InuYasha cringe slightly. He had been so mean to her at that moment, meaner than he'd ever been to her before in his life. She was his baby sister; it was his job to make her feel better, protect her, not tear her down and call her names. Kami, what the hell had gotten into him?_

_"You need to grow up. Life happens. Did you honestly expect me to be by your side forever? Grow up, Meko, that's not possible!" Even though he was facing her back, he knew that the tears in her purple eyes were starting to leak out. He saw her wipe them away with her left arm, smearing blood on her face. She either didn't notice or just didn't care, because she simply lowered her arm to her side, biting her lower lip. InuYasha saw the blood on her, smeared on her face, oozing from her arm, dripping from her palms, escaping the tiny hole her fang made in her lip... So much blood. All he wanted to do was clean it off of her and beg her for forgiveness, but he couldn't do that, and the other InuYasha wouldn't do it. He just stood there, staring daggers at his sister, past the point of wanting to explain his actions and have her hear his apology. Now he was just mad at her, he thought she deserved it, he thought, bitterly, that he should just leave her there and let her bleed to death. But something held him there, something made him stay there and spit horrible words at her. Was it the thought that she just didn't want him to be happy? But she **did** want him to be happy! He just couldn't see it back then..._

_"I'm telling you, NuYa, that chick is no good for you. If you go after her, you'll regret it for the rest of your life." She whispered. InuYasha knew what she meant when she said "chick," because she'd said it just before this moment. "Bitch priestess," that's what Meko liked to call her... That's what she was, but he didn't see that._

_"I love her, Meko, and if you can't accept that, then maybe I don't have room in my life for you." His words were quiet but sharp as knives. InuYasha closed his eyes; he knew what was coming next._

_"But you **don't** love her, NuYa, you don't, you only **think** you do. Trust me on this and get out while you still can."_

_"Shut up! You know what **I **think? **I** think you're just jealous! You're jealous that I'm in love and you're not! You know what? Have a nice life, Meko, because I won't be seeing you ever again! I hope you rot in hell!" And then the other InuYasha sped off into the forest, leaving Kameko standing there, her hands shaking. She fell to the ground, her legs sticking out on either side of her, finally letting her tears spill over freely, why shouldn't she? Her brother was gone, and she was all alone. Her salty tears mixed with the blood that was on her face, and the mixture fell into her lap, staining her light pink kimono with wet spots of light blood._

_InuYasha stared at her, his heart breaking all over again. He hadn't known that she broke down crying after he left, but in the back of his mind, he kind of did. He ran away from her that day in a blur of anger, but later that night when he thought about it, he felt **so** guilty, so bad about it. The next day he went looking for her, but he couldn't find her. She just... Disappeared._

_He started to walk towards her and kneel down in front of her, even though he knew he couldn't touch her, he felt that he should at least be near her, try to make it up to her in some way or another..._

_Just as he was kneeling down next to her, the ground slipped out from under his feet and he was falling, the fog returning and clouding everything once again. His stomach dropped and his limbs twitched slightly, he was falling falling falling. He expected to hit the ground, maybe die from impact, for he seemed to be falling from quite a distance. And then finally-BAM! He hit the ground, and everything went black._

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><p>Peace out,<p>

~Hisa-Ai~


	3. I Do

**SOTD**: "I Do" ~Colbie Calliet~

**QOTD**: "Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment, for even the very wise cannot see all ends."

**Disclaimer**: I don't own InuYasha, and the way things are going, I'm starting to get the feeling I never will.

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><p>Uchigo Raidon, a modern day Japanese student at his local high school was running frantically around his kitchen, trying to throw together a decent enough breakfast so his mother wouldn't yell at him for not eating a healthy enough meal. She was always going on and on about how breakfast was the most important meal of the day; she sounded like one of those corny American mothers he sometimes saw on television when she went on like that, but he wasn't about to tell her that. It always seemed, at least to him, that she got on his case more than she did his sisters' when they grabbed a Pop Tart and ran out of the house without eating anything else. Not that he could entirely blame her; when he was gone she had no way of knowing if he was in fact eating right, which, most of the time, he wasn't. He didn't always have three square meals a day and he didn't always eat healthily like he knew she'd prefer. In fact, even though she stocked him up on extremely healthy, and quite frankly disgusting, food before he left every time, he usually stopped off at the store and purchased some junk food, stuffing it into his backpack after he paid for it so his mother wouldn't see it and confiscate it. Then he hid it in the back of his closet before his mother saw it and slipped it back into his back pack after she loaded it up with her crap. She never knew. Was it deceitful? Yes, but if he didn't do that he would go hungry before eventually having to eat the crap she packed, and he just couldn't see himself doing that. Not again. So what <em>did<em> he do with his mother's highly healthful and equally disgusting food? Well, for some odd reason, his friends seemed to like it, so he let them eat it. Though occasionally he did convince them to eat some of what he normally ate, they didn't prefer it.

_They're so weird,_ he shook his head slightly as the whole-wheat toast popped up out of the toaster and he grabbed it, placing the two pieces on the plate before him next to his white rice, cut in half grape-fruit, few pieces of crispy bacon, and cup of coffee. There, his mother couldn't complain about that. Okay, so maybe the bacon and the coffee weren't part of the meal she'd have him eat, but so what? At least he wasn't having Frosted Flakes with _extra_ sugar or Pop Tarts or any of the other crap she kept in the house but didn't normally let them eat. No, if they wanted junk food for breakfast they had to get up before her and get some, rushing out of the house with it so when she came downstairs she wouldn't see them eating it and make them throw it out.

He sat down at the table, spreading strawberry jam on one piece of toast and butter on the other, and then dug in. He wanted to get done as quickly as he could so he could get to school, take his tests, get back to the house, and then go home. He felt guilty about leaving his friends the way he had, but he had to; he promised his parents years ago, when he first started going over, that he'd keep his grades up, and in return they let him go back there, as long as he wasn't gone on test days. Attendance wasn't exactly mandatory at his school, as long as he showed up on test days and did a decent enough job, he would pass, and as long as he passed, he was allowed to use his father's device and go back. It was a generous deal on his parents' part; since test days didn't come around too often he was gone a lot of the time, so they didn't get to spend alot of time with him anymore. He'd started using his father's device when he was fourteen, and he was almost seventeen now, so he'd been doing it for going on three years, meaning his parents missed out on three years of his life.

What was it like? he wondered as he stared absently at the clock on the wall above the door way, bringing a piece of toast up to his mouth and crunching off a piece, chewing thoughtfully. Sending your fourteen year old son off to a different time period then having him come back, injured in most cases, a few inches taller, or more muscular, or with the beginning of a beard, or at the very least some stubble? What was it like missing your only son grow up? He had an older sister, and a few younger sisters, but no brothers; He was their only son and they were missing some of the most important years of his life. He felt a pang of guilt for doing that to them, for running off and making them miss out on his life, but, knowing what he knows now, he'd feel even more guilty if he didn't go back and help his friends out. Sure, he could stop going back anytime he wanted to and just live the normal life of a Japanese teenager-go to school everyday, hang out with friends, date girls, stuff like that-but that's the thing: he _could_, but he couldn't. He didn't want to. As much as he knew it would crush his parents to hear this, his life was back there, not here, not now. He wanted to live the rest of his life back then; he'd always felt like he belonged to a different era, and now he knew why... But this was no time to think about all that; until he graduated high school, he would keep coming back, but after that... Who knows?

He finished his food quickly and put his soiled dishes in the sink, then hitched his backpack onto his shoulders and started for the door, but remembered his mother would worry if she came downstairs and he was gone; she might think he'd decided to head back early and skip Test Day for once, so he scribbled a note telling her she'd still been upstairs when he left and that he'd see her after school. Though he did consider, even for just a second, skipping Test Day and heading back early, he knew better than that; his first hour teacher, who was tight with his parents-it was a scientist thing-and knew all about Raidon's adventures in the past, would call his mother and tell on him if he didn't see him during first hour. _Ugh, such a narc, _Raidon hissed mentally. Even at school he couldn't catch a break!

He pushed open the back door and started on his way to school, making sure his keys were tucked inside his pocket and that his money-for the junk food, of course-was safely inside his backpack.

His feet grew heavy with each step he took toward the school, he didn't have any particular problem with school itself, nor the tests he was about to take, it was what came with going to school that he had a problem with.

The faces he walked past, the buildings that flew by, the cars and busses, the bikes... All of it was just so... _Irritating _to him. It was so loud! People talking on cell phones, talking and giggling with each other about completely trivial things, honking horns, bumping into each other and barely pausing to apologize, teenage couples making out on park benches, leaning against buildings, on the bus... Seriously, what happened to modesty? He was just thankful his school had required uniforms, though the girls' skirts were a bit too short for his liking, plus their gym uniforms... Ugh, he shuddered at the thought, once again thankful the boys and girls did different things in gym class, otherwise...

"Hey, Raidon-Sempai!" Three girls giggled, suddenly appearing at his side. Inwardly, he grimaced, but outwardly he smiled at them, everytime Test Day came around they met him a few blocks from the school and enagaged him in menial small talk; He humored them, mostly because he knew Hojo could use a break from these three sometimes-though he was too polite to say so-and the only time that happened was on Test Day.

"Hey Yuka, Eri, Ayumi, how are things?" Kamie never looked at him like that, and neither did Mika, another great thing about life in the Fuedel Era: if a girl liked you, she didn't make it so... obvious. You really had to hunt around and pay attention, unless of course it was an arranged marriage, though he didn't have to worry about _that_. Okay, so sometimes women looked at Jiro like that, and girls looked at him and Yoshi like that, but only for the first five minutes, after that they were able to compose themselves. These girls, on the other hand, could never do that.

"Fine," Yuka sighed, falling into step beside him. Damn, he wasn't going to get a second more with his thoughts now until he left tomorrow morning, was he?

"Just fine?"

"Yeah, just fine." Eri confirmed, nodding half-enthusiastically.

"It'd be better, but Kagome's still not here. She's got mono, so she probably won't be in for a while... Hojo's really bummed about it, because, you know, mono's the _kissing_ disease and he thought she really liked him. He doesn't know about the bad-boy boyfriend of hers that she probably caught it from." Ayumi giggled, probably thinking about how Kagome caught it. _These girls really need boyfriends_, Raidon thought to himself, noting absent-mindedly that girls back home didn't talk about things like that in front of men they weren't extremly close to, or otherwise married to.

"Higurashi's out sick?" Was all he could muster, resting one of his hands on his stomach gently, though even that small bit of pressure sent a wave of pain through his whole being. Before he left, they'd gotten into a battle, as it were, and things didn't exactly go their way. The guy who they'd fought-His name was Naraku, he'd never forget that-had stabbed him in the stomach with a poison laced sword and, well, that doesn't just heal over-night. It was wrapped up tightly beneath his uniform shirt, but he could still feel it slowly seeping blood. He had extra bandages in his backpack, so he'd probably have to change them during lunch or, at the very latest, before P.E..

"That's right. She's always out sick. She had such perfect attendance until last year, but now she misses just as much school as you, only she doesn't always show up on Test Days. You I understand-your parents are super-genius scientsists-but Kagome? She's an average girl just like us, she should be showing up a whole lot more."

"You know, when I think about it, her poor attendance started right around the time she started dating that boy-What's his name?"

"Inu-something..."

"Right, but what? Inu-"

"InuYasha?" Raidon asked suddenly, turning his head in interest, Kamie's older brother was named InuYasha. He felt his heart speed up nervously, maybe it was a coincidence, he tried to calm himself down, but InuYasha wasn't exactly a common name, not even back then. Still, what were the odds of there being _two _time-traveling teens at the _same _school, going back to the _same _period? 1 in 10 trillion.

"That's right. How did you know?"

"Oh, uh, she mentioned him to me once in passing. She was irritated with him... because... He... kept going off to... See an ex." That sounded plausible, right? To them it did; they were nodding in approval. Clearly, whoever this guy was, he'd guessed right as to what his personality was and what their current situation was. Thank _Kami_ Kamie had told him alot about her brother. InuYasha. Dog Demon. If it was a mere coincidence, their personalities were way too much alike! Still, this was going to bother him for the rest of the day... Hm, maybe after school he'd stop by the Higurashi Shrine and pay Kagome a visit. Until then, Test Day had to have it's turn.

**_abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz_**

Raidon finished all his tests on time and was pretty sure he'd passed them all with flying colors-as per usual. He chatted with his first hour teacher during lunch as he changed his bandage about what happened and how he got the injury, then, as he was leaving for his next class, his teacher handed him some books he'd come across while researching-though he wouldn't say what he'd been researching exactly-and told him to make sure to read through them as carefully as he could before he went back the next morning. He went to P.E. class and brushed off concerns about his injury, then beat the pants off of all his classmates in the mini-marathon they had to run. Yeah, life here was good, life here was easy, but that's not the sort of life he wanted to live.

He was just setting out from school for the Higurashi Shrine that afternoon after the final bell rang when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Uchigo-Sempai," Hojo greeted cheerily, despite the news Raidon had heard about his rare down-cast mood that morning, hojo seemed his usual up-beat self. Apparently, the girls had been wrong, otherwise he was just really good at hiding his sorrows. He turned around and smiled crookiedly at his underclassman, for some reason, the fact that he obviously couldn't get Higurashi, the one girl at the school he _really_ wanted, filled Raidon with a small sense of satisfaction, but why? He didn't really know the pair, not personally, anyway, so why should he care about who dated whom? He didn't, not normally, but in this case he somehow found himself very interested...

"Hojo-san, what's up?" Raidon asked, keeping the impateience out of his voice. He figured, if Hojo could put up with those three girls every damn day, he could at least humor Hojo for two minutes, though Kamie's patience, or lack thereof as it seemed to be, seemed to have rubbed off on him, because he already found himself fidgiting from standing still for too long when he had the knowledge and feeling of freedom, not the imprisonment that he felt during school hours.

"Nothing much, I just had a question for you, do you have a minute?"

"Yeah, of course, man," He nodded, though in the back of his mind he was disagreeing strongly, he felt he could spare a few minutes. The Higurashi Shrone wasn't going anywhere, and neither was Higurashi herself if she in fact did have mono like those three girls had said.

"Great, thanks. So I was talking to Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi during lunch earlier and they mentioned that Kagome mentioned her boyfriend to you before; I was just wondering if it's true. If she has a boyfriend, I mean, and if she really caught mono from him."

"Er," Damn, he should've known this was going to come back around and bite him in the ass. Oh well, nothing he could do now but try and snake his way out of this one. It'd help if he actually had the answers, but there was nothing he could do about that at the moment either. "Well, yeah. I mean, she's seeing this boy, though I don't know if she uses the term "boyfriend," and I'm not exactly sure if she caught mono from him or not, but regardless, she's not here right now." Did that even make sense? Probably, since making sense was intertwined in his DNA, but it didn't make sense to him. When he replayed the words back over in his head, he couldn't help but wonder how much of that was actually truth and how much was just a lie.

"Oh, so do you know this boy? I've never seen Kagome hanging around any boys before..."

"Yeah, kind of. I mean, I'm kind of seeing this girl who just so happens to be the guy's younger sister." Why did he say that? Him and Kameko weren't exactly _dating_, and he didn't know for certain that this guy was her older brother, but, somehow, it sounded right. Hm, he'd have to ask-Oh, right, he couldn't. He remembered, with a pang in his heart, what had happened just the day before, why he was injured, and how he'd made it out alive. Kami, he owed Kamie _so_ much... That's why he wanted to get back as soon as he could; he had to save her. She'd saved him so many times before, well now it was his turn to save her.

"Really? Hm, small world. So what can you tell me about this guy? Is he really the bad-boy type like Edi, Eri, and Yumi said? Is that what Kagome's into?"

Raidon felt his cheeks heat up at Hojo's last sentence, even though he grew up here, he was still very modest, very private, and didn't like talking about certain things. Discussing what his under-classman was "into" was one of those things. So he decided he'd just ignore that question and deal with the other one as best he could, still unaware of if what he was saying was the truth or not.

"Well, he's stubborn-_really_ stubborn-and he can be mean; he's got a short-temper and when you get him going he throws words sharp as knives carelessly, unaware of the injuries he inflicts. His pride always gets in the way of him apologizing, even when he knows he's wrong, but really, everything he does to put up the tough-guy facade, it... You can see through it once you really get to know him. He's an ass, sure, but he's gentle with Higurashi-san, he... he really cares about her. If you're worried about her, don't be; she's safe with him." He hitched his backpack up onto his shoulder, where all of that had come from, he didn't know, but it pleased him to know he didn't know; for once, the "genius" that was Uchigo Raidon didn't know something. Good, that'd show his father.

He allowed Hojo to engage him in some more chit-chat about Kagome and the boy, then stuff about the happenings of the school that he'd missed while he was away-not that he cared-and then finally Hojo said he had to get going; he had an after-school job that he couldn't be late for, so Raidon bid him farewell and started towards the Higurashi shrine, calculating everything he could to get his mind off the throbbing pain in his abdomen. It'd take him fifteen minutes to get to Higurashi Shrine at the pace he was going, then he planned on talking to Kagome for roughly ten minutes, it was another half-hour from Higurashi Shrine back to Uchigo Lab, but he had to stop off at the store ten minutes away from Uchigo Lab and spend another ten minutes getting all the stuff he'd need for when he went back the next day, then when he got home... Hm, he didn't actually _know_ what would be waiting for him when he got home, all he knew was that it was not going to be good. All in all, this was going to take him over an hour, not even taking into account all the red lights he had to wait through, plus chit-chat with Kagome's mother... Oh well, his mother and sisters would just have to wait for him to tell them what exactly happened and how he got so hurt. They had scientist blood coursing through them; they were used to waiting.

**_zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcba_**

"Stupid InuYasha!" Kagome hissed under her breath, stomping out of the well house and throwing open the back door, who did he think he was? Talking to her like that when she was just trying to help! Ugh, he was such a child sometimes! No, children can be reasoned with, he was beyond childish, he was babyish. Ugh, such a baby! She called out a starined "I'm back!" and climbed the staircase up to her bedroom. She wanted to see her mother and grandfather and little brother, she did, but she couldn't right now; she'd snap at all of them, and they'd all been so understanding of everything, even covering for her whn she was back in the Fuedel Era doing her thing, so she had to wait for herself to calm down before she went and said hi in person. Stupid InuYasha! He ruined _everything_!

She wouldn't even mind him snapping on her like that if he'd just told her what was wrong, but did he? No, as soon as she started asking questions when they were alone he clammed up and started with the attitude, pissing her off and making her "sit" him which only pissed him off more, leading to a huge fight and her storming off and coming home early.

"Hmph!" It was just the same, she plopped down on her bed and spread herself out, streaching and relaxing every muscle she could, she needed to come back anyway; today had been Test Day and she missed it, so she'd have to stay here for a few days anyway to make up the tests. Who knew when she'd go back over? Everytime she came over it was for three days, so she expected InuYasha to come for her then, but she didn't know if she'd be any less pissed at him by then or if he'd even come-he was so stubborn sometimes! He let his pride and ego get in the way of _everything! _Though she didn't exactly make it any easier; when he started getting all defensive and everything, she didn't have to start yelling at him. Looking back, she realized that was probably a huge mistake.

Kagome sighed and stood back up, she was sweaty and sore and dirty; she could use a soak in the tub before she did anything else.

**_abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz_**

A full twnety minutes later, Raidon was standing at the front door to the Higurashi Shrine, knocking lightly on the door and musing to himself that that was a _lot_ of stairs to walk up. He ran around Fuedel Era, Japan and walked miles upon miles every damn day, but seriously, that was a _lot_ of stairs! Maybe he wouldn't have minded so much if every step he took up wasn't followed by a sharp stab in his stomach, but it was, so that just made it all the more worse. Still, he was able to steady his breathing just as the door was being pulled open.

"Oh, hello there." A middle-aged woman Raidon immediately assumed was Kagome's mother opened the door with a smile on her face and a chiper tone in her voice. He smiled back at her politely, though he was screaming on the inside; he needed to clean his wound, he needed to rebandage it again, but he couldn't; he didn't have the necessary items on hand, so he'd just have to grin and bear it until he got back to Uchigo Lab.

"Hi. I'm Uchigo Raidon, I'm a grade ahead of your daughter-I go to the same school as her-and I was just wondering if I could talk to her for a minute." He tried his best to seem convincing-maybe he was just an upper-classman checking up on an under-classmen he was worried about or maybe he was just dropping off homework or something; he would sell whatever she wanted to buy if he could just talk to Kagome for two minutes.

* * *

><p>I'm gonna stop myself right there for today.<p>

What do you guys think of Raidon? I'm not quite sure how he's coming across to you guys yet, but I've already got a feel for what he's like. He's definitely complex, you know? Eh, you guys will understand him sooner or later.

Man, Kagome was _so pissed_ at InuYasha. Wonder what he did this time... He's always pissing her off. I'm starting to think he gets off on pain. Think about it: We all know InuYasha's got a thing for Kagome, and Kagome's clearly got a thing for InuYasha, yet all he ever does is piss her off so she 'sits' him, which we all know _must_ hurt him, which leads me to believe he gets off on pain.

Anyway, I wanted to make this much longer, but I've got plans that don't involve making this chapter any longer than it currently is. Oh, do I have plans...

Peace out,

~Hisa-Ai~


	4. More Than This

**SOTD**: "More Than This" ~Vanessa Carlton~

**QOTD**: "I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them."

**Disclaimer**: If I owned InuYasha do you think I'd be writing a Fan Fiction about it? Actually, you're right, I probably would. Actually, if I ever get a book published, I'll probably write Fan Fictions about it/them. But does it count as a FanFic if you're the author/creator of it? It's called _Fan_ Fiction, after all. Can you be a fan of your own work? Yeah, you can. When it comes to writing, I think you have to be your own biggest fan and worst critic. So, anyway, I don't own InuYasha, just to clear that up...

* * *

><p>"Damn wench, always saying that damned word and making me hit the ground. Who does she think she is? What am I, some dog she can say 'sit' to and then run along on her merry little way? Then she goes running back to that damned well without even asking me! What the hell is wrong with her anyway? I didn't do anything wrong!" InuYasha grumbled, crossing his arms and leaning back against the tree whose branch he was sitting on, shielded from the sun by the thick branches above his head. It wasn't <em>his<em> fault she was so damn sensitive about every little thing. Every word that came out of his mouth was wrong, and when he didn't say anything at all he was still wrong-he just couldn't win! It was bad enough he'd had that dream the night before, but then Kagome had to start in on him the _second_ Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippou took off to find some lower level demon they'd heard about from Kaede. InuYasha would have gladly gone with them-a fight's a fight, even if it is with a weakling-but Kagome told him no, they could handle it themselves, and besides, she wanted to have a word with him in private. From the tone in her voice, everyone assumed he was in trouble-Shippou asserting this point when he started snickering as he jumped up onto Sango's shoulder so InuYasha wouldn't hit him-well, everyone but Miroku who lifted his eyebrows in curiosity and had the smirk of the lecher that he is on his face.

After the group took off, agreeing to meet the pair at Kaede's village after their job was done, Kagome turned on InuYasha with a look he was unable to read on her face. He gulped, backing into a tree as she started walking toward him. He was so _sure_ he'd done something wrong, so positive she was about to "sit" him, that he braced himself, ready to eat the dirt yet again. But, instead, she dropped the look and sat down on the grass near where he was standing. She motioned for him to come closer, it wasn't like she was going to bite or anything, and he did, if only to prolong his suffering, for he was still sure that he'd done something wrong. He sat cautiously next to her, watching everything she did to see if he could predict when she'd say it. He was no psychic, but he was hoping maybe something in her body language would be able to tell him when it was coming so, if he couldn't avoid it, at least he could prepare himself or maybe try and talk her out of it.

"InuYasha," Kagome finally started, his name ringing like bells when she said it. _Focus, baka,_ he scolded himself, trying to make himself forget how each syllable sounded as it rolled off her tongue. Though it wasn't that easy when she said his name as often as she did, he was sure it was almost possible. "Did you have a bad dream last night?" Her question caught him off guard-he had not been expecting that-and that obviously showed in his face, as he caught the slightest hint of a smirk of satisfaction appear on her face for a brief second before it disappeared. Still, how the hell did she know that?

"Er... Why do you wanna know?" He forced out cockily, the arrogance and don't-mess-with-me tone he always seemed to favor evident in his voice. Why did he get like that with her? He didn't want to put her off, yet at the same time he kind of did. In the back of his mind he knew she was only trying to help him out and be nice, but there was such a thing as being _too_ nice, and he didn't deserve it. He had a bit of an ego, he would admit, but even he knew he didn't deserve to be in the company of someone like Kagome. That ego of his was merely a form of defense he'd had to forge when he was young, as was the tone in his voice when he felt like someone was pushing his boundaries too far, trying to get too close to him, and now it was just habit. He was just trying to protect himself, as was his instinct, but lately he often found himself fighting and pushing against those instincts. He'd done the same thing as a kid, then he hadn't, and now he was doing it again, though he didn't know why. Maybe one day he'd realize the truths he needed to know to set things straight with Kagome, but at the moment all he knew was that he wasn't in trouble and Kagome was about to start pushing some buttons she'd be better off ignoring.

"Well, you fell out of the tree this morning screaming and that's never happened before. Plus, you were all sweaty even though it was cool out, and you looked scared for a second before you realized I was watching you." She explained slowly, bounds of patience at her disposal. Kami, how did she do it? She was clearly agitated with him, but her voice was so level and calm, albeit a little tight.

"Why _were_ you watching me?" Anything to avoid the topic of his dream, or nightmare, or memory, or whatever the hell it was. _Anything_.

Kagome's cheeks flushed a dark pink and she adverted her gaze away from InuYasha and towards the trees around them. He followed her gaze and stared at the trees as well, every crack and bump hidden among the brown bark apparent to him. Though all the flaws and problems that he saw when he glanced at it were probably invisible to Kagome's human eyesight, he felt that was part of why he felt so deeply for her and wanted to protect her from everything; while he could see all the problems and danger, she was able to over-look it all and somehow see something amazing and beautiful.

Thinking about this, he realized he could have left matters alone-clearly she didn't want to talk about why she'd been watching him and wouldn't broach the subject of his sudden awakening if she had to answer **that **question-but the silence that hung between them, while nice in a sense, didn't sit well with him. In a way, it reminded him of the silence he'd first experienced in his dream the night before, the vast world ringing in his ears, taunting him with its secrets and the unknown beyond his sight, his heart pounding furiously in his ears. In all honesty, he was half expecting Kagome to be swallowed up by some thick fog and for him to lose himself again in all of it. He needed to know this was _real_, that he _was_ sitting next to Kagome in the middle of his forest just a stone's throw away from the well and that he _wasn't_ still sleeping. Hell, he needed to know that _all _of this was real and that the whole thing wasn't just some illusion his mind had created to pass the time. For all he knew, he was still pinned to that godforsaken tree in suspended animation by Kikyou's arrow. For all he knew, he was dead and this was his punishment for everything horrible he'd ever done in his lifetime. For all he knew, Kikyou's arrow had killed him that day.

Ugh, _when_ had he become so damn crazy? Well, they say stupid is catchy, so the same thing might be said for crazy, too, he just thanked his lucky stars he hadn't caught stupid yet…

"Seriously, I want to know why you were watching me." He pushed, not being in the state of mind to watch Kagome's body language as he'd previously done when he thought he was in trouble.

"Why does it matter?"

"Because it's not your job to watch me, it's my job to watch you, to protect you." Physically, she retracted slightly, and InuYasha took note of that, wondering why-had he said something that upset her? Well, he normally didn't have to try very hard to do that, and when he _did_ upset her, he didn't always _know_ why.

Silence fell on them once again, only this time the pair stared at each other, an argument was clearly bubbling beneath the surface, the only question was who was going to set it off first, and the answer was obvious.

InuYasha felt a burning sensation course through-out his body that he only ever felt when he was around Kagome like this, so close and so alone. His skin felt like it was burning up from the inside out, like he could burst into flames at any given second despite the Robe of the Fire Rat he wore. Though it wasn't an entirely _bad_ feeling-He liked it. He liked knowing he could still feel, and he liked knowing she got a reaction other than disgust out of him, unlike in the beginning when all he felt for her was disgust and hatred. Though that quickly wore off after he realized she was completely different from Kikyou, he still remembered what it felt like to cringe and physically grimace at every word she said, and he didn't want to find himself doing that again. Of course, he could never tell _her_ any of that, but it was enough for him to know.

"What was your bad dream about? I won't laugh, I promise." Kagome assured him suddenly.

"I... No, it was nothing. Just some stupid shit I did in my past. Forget about it." He mumbled. Why had he wavered? For a second there he was actually going to tell her. But no, he couldn't. She wouldn't understand.

"I will not. Come on, InuYasha, if I had a bad dream I'd tell you about it."

"So?"

"Don't you "so" me. Just tell me."

"No. Kagome, just leave it alone." He insisted, adamant. He felt that burning sensation turn in his blood and felt the anger rising within. He would try and stay calm, try and get off topic, try and not yell at her...

"Why can't you just let me in?" She yelled suddenly, her voice cracking and her eyes glazing over with tears as she stood to her feet. InuYasha jumped slightly at her tone and more so at the look on her face and stood up as well, it was one of sadness, yet at the same time limitless anger, and he did not like that one bit. Still, her yelling at him sent his blood afire with the anger he felt coming on mere moments ago. So now they were going to play _this_ game, huh? Fine, she could have it her way.

"What are you talking about? I always let you in!" To be honest, he didn't even know what the hell she was talking about, but he assumed she was wrong and that he did in fact always let her in.

"No, you don't! You never want to talk to me about anything! And when you do it's always Shikon no Tama this! Jewl Shard that! Kikyou, Kikyou, Naraku! God, I tell you **everything** the _least _you could do is tell me this one little thing! It's not gonna kill you or anything!"

But it just might, he wanted to say, it just might. He lived that moment every day after it happened and now he was dreaming about it; He didn't know if he'd be able to handle _telling _the story, repeating it out loud, especially to Kagome. What would she think of him if he did tell her? Nothing good, that much he was sure of.

"Just leave it. Alone." He seethed through clenched teeth.

"No! Would you stop being so stubborn? Two minutes, that's all it would take you! Two minutes and then I'll drop it!"

"No you won't! You won't even drop it now!"

"Why are you being so damn stubborn? What are you afraid of? If you did something bad it's okay; it was a nightmare. It doesn't mean anything." her voice was suddenly soft as she tried soothing him momentarily, but then she must have remembered she was mad at him, as her face got hard and she resumed screaming at him. "Just tell me!" She couldn't leave him thinking she was going to get over this so quickly, not that he needed to be reminded of that; he knew she could hold a grudge when it came to him and his idiocy and he always had at least one bruise to prove it. But that never stopped him from being an idiot before, so why should it now?

"No! Forget it, wench!" He crossed his arms and turned slightly, he was past the point of caving in and telling her, he just wanted her to leave it, and him, alone for a minute.

"Sit boy!" Kagome yelled, crossing her own arms as he was hurled to the ground face first. Damn, he should've seen that coming; when he starts yelling at her, she starts sitting him. He leapt up and the arguing intensified, heated words being thrown back and forth, neither willing to back down and apologize for surely it was the other's fault. Eventually, Kagome grew tired of the back and forth exchange-her words stung him and his words stung her; there was not going to be a winner here-and "sat" him one last time before running off with her backpack and jumping into the well to go back to her own time, muttering the standard "I'll be back in three days," before she did so.

InuYasha stared after her for a moment, wondering if he should go after her. Recalling the look on her face, he thought better of it. And anyway, if he went after her she'd want an apology and it was _so_ **_not_** his fault! He had warned her, now hadn't he? He told her to back off and leave it alone, but she didn't listen. No, he wasn't going to apologize until _she _apologized. He jumped up into the tree then, and began grumbling to himself, bringing us to this moment, when he sat leaning against the tree, replaying it all over and over in his head. Yes, he could have avoided the whole argument, had he just left things alone. And to think, he'd ruined one of the rare moments they had alone together on this side of the well in a long, long time.

He let out a sigh and let his eyes fall closed, nothing for him to do now but sit there and think. But he didn't want to think. He didn't want to think about the argument they'd just had and he certainly didn't want to think about the "dream" he'd had the night before. It was true what Kagome had said, he _had_ fallen out of the tree screaming that morning and he _had_ been drenched in sweat, but he couldn't bring himself to explain _why_.

It was just _too_ much.

Everything he worked so hard for these last few years would be meaningless if she found out what a monster he could be even in his half-demon form. And all those emotions he kept bottled up until all he was left with was anger would come uncorked and he'd have to face them; he didn't want to face them, because he didn't know how. All he could do was hit things with his fists and cut things down with his sword, that was all. He wasn't good at putting into words how he felt about anything else. If he was happy his smiles looked a bit like smirks if he was around anyone other than Kagome. If he was sad he couldn't cry and he couldn't explain why he was upset because getting upset over something shows what you care about, which shows weakness. And if he had feelings for someone-not that he did-he _really_ couldn't tell anyone because... Well, he just couldn't.

InuYasha shook his head and tried clearing it of all thoughts; nothing he had to think about right now could bring him to any peaceful conclusions, so why bother?

After a while, he just sat there in a state of meditation, breathing deeply and not thinking about anything in particular. He opened his ears a bit more than usual and heard and sensed everything around him. The tree he was sitting on, the animals that ran around the forest-all being sure to avoid his demonic aura-the air that blew around him, he was aware of everything except his own stupidity.

Which is why he was so surprised when he suddenly sensed a very strong, very angry demonic presence approaching him fast. His eyes snapped open and he jumped down onto the ground in defense mode with his sword drawn and ready to go, waiting for the bastard to get close enough so he could make his move and finish this before it even started. _Guess it's a **good** thing Kagome and I stayed behind and she ran off to the other side of the well._ InuYasha mused to himself, clenching his teeth together and revealing his fangs. He had a feeling whoever or whatever he was about to fight was not going to go down without a thorough fight, and he was more than happy to give that to them. He didn't even entertain the notion that maybe this thing-whatever it was-wasn't after him; somehow he just knew it was, and he couldn't question that instinct.

Suddenly a blur flew by him on his right side and he felt a slight pressure on his cheek, he put his hand up to it and when he pulled it back it came away with blood. He cursed under his breath and turned in the direction it had gone in; surely it would come back-Why toy with a guy like that if you didn't plan on fighting him? Again, a blur flew by him, this time on his left, and he felt pressure on his left cheek. He didn't have to put his hand to his face to know he was bleeding on that side as well now; he wasn't a total idiot, not when it came to fighting. Plus, with that nose of his, he could _smell _the blood.

"Damnit!" He hissed as the blur flew by yet again, leaving yet another gash in his skin. "Would you just hold still so I can kill you?" He yelled, jumping up as the blur flew by yet again. What was this thing? And why was it targeting _him_? As far as _he _knew he hadn't pissed anyone off who moved that fast. Well, aside from that wolf pup Koga, but, even with the Shikon shards, not even Koga moved that fast. All he'd been doing was sitting up in the tree, trying to waste time until he was calm or found something to do. He hadn't been out terrorizing local villages or screwing with other demon's mates or anything, so what the hell?

"Now, now, InuYasha," A voice cackled, Kagura suddenly materializing above his head. He growled as he glanced up, the blur running by yet again, only this time it didn't hit him, it giggled in his ear, a giggle that sent him back fifty plus years. A shiver went down his spine as his mind made the connections, Kameko would giggle like that at him when they were younger and he was acting all holier-than-thou, so young and carefree and knowing. He shook his head, _why_ would Kameko be anywhere _near_ this forest, this village? And why would she attack him? Yeah, ok, he probably had it coming, but she didn't move _that_ fast, not when he last saw her, anyway. Granted, she'd always been faster than him, but he'd always been able to see her, could she have been holding back? Wait, what the hell was Kagura doing there? "If you tell your opponent you plan on killing them, do you really think they're going to slow down and give you that chance?"

"Kagura," InuYasha hissed, the hair standing up on the back of his neck. The forest around him was suddenly still-not even the blur was moving, but where was it? He couldn't sense any demonic auras now-not even Kagura's-and he couldn't smell any nearby demons either, but why? "What the hell do you want? I suppose Naraku's got something to do with this." He offered his face towards her, his ears turning and surveying the surrounding forest.

"Oh, nothing gets by you, now does it?" Kagura smirked down at him. He let out a growl, though he'd been all fired up and ready for a fight just moments ago, suddenly he wasn't much in he mood. Something in the back of his mind told him this was not a fight he wanted to be involved in, and he believed it. The only problem was he couldn't exactly run away; he didn't want word getting around that he was a wuss or anything. And even if he didn't mind people-demons, Naraku,-thinking of him as weak, where would he go? Kagura found him _here_, so anywhere else he went she'd just find him again. And he couldn't go to Kagome's time either, not when she was already so pissed at him like she was. Damn, he'd just have to deal with Kagura and the bastard she brought along with her to fight him. How bad could it be; how bad could it get?

"What the hell do you want?" He repeated, like maybe putting a little extra growl in the demand would get her to offer up the information.

"Ooh, someone's cranky. Well, here's an old play-mate to help cheer you up." She let out a laugh as InuYasha turned his head. Somehow, he was now able to sense Kagura's demonic aura again, he was able to smell her, and he was able to sense and smell the blur that had just scratched both sides of his face. His mouth fell open as the blur came to a stand still right in front of him. Long silver hair, silver dog ears, long claws, exposed fangs, the only thing missing was the purple eyes, and instead of purple, her eyes were blood red, a clear indication that something was wrong. She had a sheathed sword at her waist, and a red haori on, covering up the rest of what she was wearing. Her smell and her energy seemed the same as he remembered it to be, though her demonic energy seemed to be triple what it should be, he was still sure it was her.

"Meko."

* * *

><p>Don't you just love it when Kagome and InuYasha fight? <em>I<em> find it amusing.

I wanted to get this chapter up a few days ago, but Tuesday was my little brother's tenth birthday, Wednesday my older sister had a friend over so I couldn't do anything then, and yesterday I barely had time to run it through the spell check.

I wanted to describe in this chapter what Kameko was wearing, but I'm not one hundred percent sure what she'd be wearing, so that's going to have to wait until a later chapter. I'm doing a bit of research, trying to figure out just what women wore back then. I know it depended on their social status, you know, what kind of family they were born into, who they married, and what they did and everything, I'm just trying to figure out just what _she_ would be wearing. I have a pretty clear indication of her character and what she's like, I just need to... I need a chart, basically. When it comes to stuff like this I work best if I have a chart to look at. So I have to do some more research then make a chart out of the information I find. I guess I know what I'm doing Monday morning...

So peace out,  
>~Hisa-Ai~<p> 


	5. Falling In

**SOTD 7/31/11: **"Falling In" ~Lifehouse~ _(I'm crazy in love with this song right now. Can you blame me? It's a really good song.)_

**QOTD 7/31/11: "**Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."

**Disclaimer**: I don't own anything, but I don't own anything more than I don't own InuYasha.

* * *

><p>"So, Uchigo-Sempai," Kagome started, tucking a lock of her damp black hair behind her ear. She had just stepped out of the bathroom towel drying her hair when there had been a knock on her door. When she opened it, her mother informed her that there was a boy downstairs who wanted to talk to her about something. Kagome assumed that it was Hojo and had started to tell her mother to tell him that she wasn't feeling well enough to entertain visitors at the moment, but when her mother informed her that it <em>wasn't<em> Hojo at the door, it piqued her curiosity; no other boy on this side of the well ever visited her at home. So she told her mother to send him up while she hurriedly ran a brush through her hair, she was expecting a boy from her class or one of a lower grade, so when another knock came at her door and Raidon walked in, one of the more popular, though rarely present, upper-classmen, Kagome was more than a little surprised.

He lowered himself into her desk chair gently and let out some air of relief, unbeknownst to her; he was in excruciating pain and planned on keeping this visit short and to the point. Whether or not she would like for him to be as blunt as he planned on being didn't matter, he needed to get what needed to be said/asked out there and high-tail it back to Uchigo Lab as quickly as he could. He felt his wound seeping blood, he could tell the bandage was drenched with blood and he knew he needed to change it soon; he had to clean the wound. Damn, he could tell it wasn't healing, not quickly, not at all. When he took off the old bandage at school and took a good look at the wound, it had been moist and oozing pus mixed with blood and it even looked kind of black, and what was worse, it seemed to be _bigger,_ if that was even possible.

"Um, just call me Raidon, Higurashi-san," he said absent-mindedly. Kagome sat down on her bed and tucked one of her legs underneath herself. Raidon seemed to be just as stiff and awkward as she was feeling about the whole thing, she noticed, chuckling nervously. He crossed one of his arms gently across his stomach and moved his backpack close to the chair with his other hand. She bit her lip, if ever there was a time when she wished InuYasha were there to meet someone from _this_ time period, it was now. She couldn't explain it, but she seemed to get the feeling that Raidon and InuYasha would have something in common, something they needed to talk about, man to man. Now why on Earth would she think something like that? The two were from two different times - what could they _possibly_ have to talk about?

"Then you call me Kagome."

Raidon smiled slightly at her curt response, she kind of reminded him of -

"Alright. Kagome. I guess you _don't _have mono, then?" Why did he ask that? It was obvious she didn't, but he... Couldn't... Help it - Crap. The Illness, it must have been activated by something, but what? Usually if it was going to act up on its own it started when he - they - first woke up in the morning, but it hadn't started until just now - Could Kameko have provoked it? Why would she do that? What was she planning? That was good, though, to an extent; if she was able to provoke the Illness, that meant she was still alive, the last sliver of hope he could grasp onto. But it was still bad, because he had only planned on telling Kagome very few details about everything, but now he'd wind up telling her way more than she needed to know at the moment, and if he was wrong about this, if she really was just sick and the boy's name was just a coincidence, he was in big trouble.

"Um..." Mono? _Mono_! Her grandfather had told the school that she had the _kissing disease?_ Oooh, if an Upper-classmen had already heard about it, then that meant the whole school knew by now! How could she ever show her face there again if everyone thought she was out sick with the _kissing disease?_ Her friends would never let her hear the end of this! Not to mention the damage this would do to her reputation! "No, I guess I don't." Hadn't she had a talk with him before about not making up embarrassing illnesses? Was that his idea of a joke or did he not think mono was that embarrassing? She would have to have another talk with him, and this time maybe give examples of what she considered "embarrassing." Mono, for starters, though it was too little too late now...

"Hmm." He nodded then continued, praying that he wouldn't say something that got him kicked out before he got to what he needed to say. "Well, that's the rumor that's going around the school, that you're out with mono and that you caught it from your "bad boy boyfriend,""

"Wha-!" Kagome blushed a dark red, how had he heard about that? He was never at school so when did he have the _time_ to pick up on rumors? And when did he hear about InuYasha? How much did he know? "Who did you hear that from?"

"Yuka-chan, Eri-chan, and Ayumi-chan, they caught up with me on my way to school this morning and told me - They are so annoying sometimes! Anyway, then they said your boyfriend's name is InuYasha, which I found curious, because I know a girl who happens to be related to an InuYasha and that's not exactly a common name now nor during any other time period, you know? Then I guess they talked to Hojo-san at lunch today and he caught up with me after school before I came here and he was asking me about this InuYasha dude, what he was like and everything and I kind of - Now don't think I'm stalking you or anything - told him some stuff. But the thing is, I don't know if it's true or not because I don't know if it's the same guy - Is it?" He clamped his mouth shut and bit his lip; he didn't want to say more, he didn't want to say anything about _her_ unless he knew for sure he was talking about the same dude. It was hard for him not to say anything else about her in his current state of mind, but it was do-able, he just had to try a little harder than usual.

Kagome retracted slightly, he _knew_ an InuYasha? This was bad. This was very, very bad! Wait a second! He said he knew an InuYasha because he knew a girl who was _related_ to him, so it couldn't be the same guy; InuYasha's only living family was an older brother, who had never really liked him, right? She relaxed then, positive that he couldn't know the same guy.

"What, is the girl like his sister or something?" She had to know, because, just in case it _was_ the same guy, she would have to confront InuYasha about it later when he came for her in three days. She'd probably "sit" him for keeping that secret from her, she'd probably be mad at him for a little while, but she still had to know.

He nodded. "His younger sister, actually. Admittedly, I've never personally _met_ the guy," He stopped and muttered something under his breath that Kagome couldn't quite make out. Something along the lines of, "Not while he was conscious, anyway," Then he continued along in the same tone as before, "But she's told me a lot about him."

Was it possible? Did InuYasha have a younger sister? No, that was the sort of thing he'd mention, wasn't it? But he didn't willingly mention Sesshoumaru before, so maybe it was the same deal with this... Wait a second, wait a second! In what instance would he _meet_ InuYasha's sister, _if_ he even had one? InuYasha was from the Sengoku Jidai, Raidon was a student at her school, unless she had survived this long and was in hiding or something, how would he know her? Was it possible-? No, she was the only one who could travel through time. That much she was sure of...

"W-What did you tell him? About InuYasha, I mean."

"Um... Word-for-word? "Well, he's stubborn-_really_ stubborn-and he can be mean; he's got a short-temper and when you get him going he throws words sharp as knives carelessly, unaware of the injuries he inflicts. His pride always gets in the way of him apologizing, even when he knows he's wrong, but really, everything he does to put up the tough-guy facade, it... You can see through it once you really get to know him. He's an ass, sure, but he's gentle with Higurashi-san, he... he really cares about her. If you're worried about her, don't be; she's safe with him.""

"Oh." She gasped, it certainly _sounded_ like the same guy, but it couldn't be. It had to be a coincidence. It just had to be.

Raidon sighed and stood up. "There's no other way to explain this to you without you thinking I'm completely crazy," He started unbuttoning his shirt carefully. From the look on Kagome's face, she had no idea what he was doing or why he was doing it. Raidon smirked at her reaction, what exactly did she think he was gonna do? "But I'm going to try," He pulled his shirt open to reveal the white, blood stained bandage he had wrapped around his torso. Kagome let out a gasp as he began to undo the bandage, the best way to start this conversation was to show her he was dead serious, and he couldn't think of any other way aside from what he was doing now. "And if I'm wrong and none of this is lining up the way I thought it was going to, you have to promise me you're not going to tell anyone." He let the bandage fall to the floor and stood facing Kagome so she could see the deep, circular wound barely above his navel. It was slowly oozing blood and pus from a tiny hole in the scab, but that was enough to soak the bandage if he left it untreated for about three hours, which he had.

"I got this in a battle with Naraku."

* * *

><p>"Meko!" InuYasha gasped, glancing up at Kagura with a scowl on his face, then back down at the girl that stood before him with a smirk on her face. Her eyes... They were so red. That meant she wasn't in control. But why-? He cleared his head with a shake and a growl; it didn't matter <em>why<em>, not at this point. All that mattered right now was getting out of this alive without hurting her. It was obvious Kagura had brought her along in hopes of getting to him, but how had she - or rather _he_, as this was clearly Naraku's doing - known about Meko? He had never mentioned her before, not even to his friends, not even to Kagome. And he had done so purposely, for he had feared that if Naraku knew of her he would drag her into it, and he didn't want her anywhere near his drama, not after she had warned him that something like this could be the outcome if he pursued Kikyou.

"Surprised? I thought you'd be happy to see your baby sister one final time before you died." Kagura cackled, nodding at Kameko. She nodded back with a deadly smirk and whipped the sword out of its sheath. It glowed white for a second then transformed into a blade that rivaled the Tetsusaiga. InuYasha marveled at her ability to wield it so easily, but his amazement was cut short when she let out a growl and started running toward him, her sword held high.

* * *

><p>"N-Naraku? I don't understand..." Kagome mumbled, bringing her hand up to her forehead, could this be a dream? Maybe she was still dreaming. But why would she be dreaming about Raidon? She hardly knew the guy! Sure, she used to see him all the time, but she had never talked to him before this moment. And why would she? He was a grade ahead of her so she never got a chance to interact with him, and the only <em>real<em> reason she knew anything about him was because her friends thought he was hott and would swoon over him any time they caught a rare glimpse of him in the halls or when his picture in the school paper or year book. _Those three are such stalkers when they like a guy!_ She thought to herself, recalling how each girl had a mini-shrine dedicated to both Hojo and Raidon in their closets at home. Before, she had thought he was kind of good looking too, but she hardly had a crush on him. The only things she knew about him were that his parents were _the_ Mayumi and Susumu Uchigo, famous Japanese scientists. She couldn't quite remember _why_ they were famous, just that they were famous for being geniuses. And their genius combined had been passed along to all of their children, five in total, with Raidon being the second oldest and all the others being girls.

Before he started missing a lot of school, he had been pretty tall and lanky and not the least bit muscular. He'd always been a fast runner - he used to be the star of the track team but he quit after he missed a whole week of school once. After that first time - which had, admittedly, been a couple of years back - he would disappear for weeks at a time, only showing up on Test Days anymore. But there was a change in him when he returned that first time. His green eyes, so soft and curious before, had become hard and cautious, and as time went on and he missed more and more school, he changed more and more. His face became more profound - as if he had wisdom and knowledge that no one else could ever even dream of knowing - yet at the same time, it became more burdened, as if what he knew were weighing down on him heavily and slowly killing him. He grew taller, he became more muscular, and eventually, laughter returned to his eyes and they weren't as hard. He always had a tan, and his hair was always cropped short and spiked up slightly. But, also, he was always injured. There was always a cut or a bruise visible, or he had his hand or something wrapped up... It was always something. If what he was saying meant what she thought it meant, it was all clear to her now, and it did make sense... But, at the same time, it didn't - how would he even _get_ back in time?

"Yes, you do. You know who Naraku is, don't you?" he asked softly, bending down stiffly to pick up his backpack. Half-way down, however, he let out a gasp and fell to his knees. Kagome bolted over to him, she didn't really understand, but he was hurt and bleeding all over her carpet; she couldn't turn a blind eye, she had to help him. She'd just have to ask questions after she put a new bandage on his wound...

* * *

><p>InuYasha jumped up quickly, narrowly missing having his head cut off by the sharp edge of her sword. As he landed, she brought the sword down on the space between his neck and shoulder, missing the bone by a mere half-inch. He staggered backwards - S<em>hit, that hurt! -<em> and jumped over her so he landed behind her. He brushed off the pain and dodged carefully as she swung her sword at him numerous times following, lucky for him she still had the same pattern she'd had when they were kids and using sticks practicing what it'd be like if they ever got _real_ swords. Swing, stab, back swing, swing, stab, back swing... He had to back up with every movement of her sword, but what else could he do?

"Game over, InuYasha." She sneered, holding her sword with the point gently resting against his neck; he tried backing up again, but found himself hitting a tree instead, his head snapping backwards as it made contact with the hard bark. Damn, he should've been paying more attention! He scolded himself as his head began to throb. He swallowed as he looked into her red eyes; she had just called him by his full name. It really _was_ game over...

"Okay, Meko, you win. Just make it quick." He offered up his throat for her to slice, all he could do was wait for her to end it now. There was no way for him to do anything else. He couldn't pull out the Tetsusaiga and fight her, he couldn't throw the Tetsusaiga to the side and let his demon half take over, he couldn't escape... He had no other options besides death, and he prayed it would come quickly.

But, instead of the cool hard blade slicing through his throat like he was expecting, the blade moved and sliced him diagonally across the stomach and chest instead. He groaned in pain, barely catching the words she mumbled before she took off, Kagura on her tail, "Get out of here, NuYa." And then she was gone, just as suddenly as she appeared and InuYasha found himself dragging his bleeding, suddenly weak and limp body over to the Bone Eater's Well and through it.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **Okay, I'm starting right in with everything this time around. No dragging things out, no putting things off, just jumping right in. In a couple of chapters, I'm going to start introducing a few more OCs. I want to start out by going into their backgrounds a little bit, but we'll see how well that plays out. And before you ask, this isn't going to turn out to be a KagomexOC(Raidon) fic; I'm InuKag all the way. But they don't just _get_ their ending handed to them; They're gonna have to work for it. And there may or may not be a future chapter influenced by _Fushigi Yuugi_. Anyone familiar with the series may or may not be able to figure out what that means.

Another thing, I know that when she was in middle school, Kagome was in her last year there and there weren't any higher grades at that particular school, _BUT_ when I planned this out, that little bit kind of slipped my mind, so let's pretend that her school goes up one more grade level, 'kay? Other than that, I don't have much more to say right now...

So peace out,

~Hisa-Ai~


	6. Toy Soldier

**SOTD 8/25/11:** "Toy Soldier" ~Keri Hilson~

**QOTD 8/25/11: "**My wish for you is that this life becomes all that you want it to. Your dreams stay big, and your worries small."

**Disclaimer: **I don't own InuYasha, people! I do, however, own a whole Summer's worth of tapes with episodes of InuYasha _on_ them - Does that count?

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><p>"Why did you do that?" Kagura hissed, landing on the ground beside Kameko in the thick forest. Trees were all around them, her sharp, angry voice bouncing off each of them, making Kameko's ears twitch slightly. She wiped the blood off the edge of her sword and resheathed it before turning to face Kagura, her sharp red eyes glaring at her in a way that made her visibly flinch. "Why didn't you finish him off? Those were Naraku's orders, weren't they? For you to kill him? You had him! Don't tell me Naraku doesn't have as much control over you as he thinks..." She purred, her sleeve covering her devilish smirk.<p>

Kameko brushed the comment off, staring at Kagura icily for a minute before replying, "Naraku's orders were to kill him when that girl was around and she wasn't; he was alone. If I had finished him off now, Naraku's orders wouldn't have been fulfilled."

"So, what do we do now then?" Kagura asked, the air around them suddenly chilly.

"_Now_, we wait."

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

InuYasha somehow made it through the Well and was just now climbing out of it when it hit him: Kameko had called him "NuYa" at the end there and told him to get away while he still could, so that meant... Even though Naraku was controlling her, she was still herself underneath it all, a fact he tried to take solace in, but found extremely difficult given the circumstances. As he slid the door of the well house open, it became too much for his weak form to carry on and he collapsed mere feet away from Kagome's window, mere feet away from help.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

"Feeling any better?" Kagome asked Raidon, who was laying on her bed now. After she helped him up and took him to the bathroom to clean and bandage his wound, she had made him lie down while she got him some pills to take to alleviate the pain, he had downed them about fifteen minutes ago and had been laying down on her bed ever since. He nodded his reply and sat up slowly, that wound had done more damage than he thought it would. And to think, it had all started out as just a little sword puncture...

"Yeah, compared to before, loads. Now, let's talk about why I'm here. You see my backpack? Go inside it and grab the first three books you see." He instructed, nodding towards her desk. She reached over and pulled it up onto the bed then unzipped it quickly and threw her hands in, grabbing the first three books and laying them out on the bed so both her and Raidon could see them.

"_A Feudal Fairytale, Secrets of the Shards, _and _A History Lesson_ - What are these?" She asked, plopping his backpack back on the ground, completely forgetting about the bloodstain on her carpet that would now have settled because she didn't get to it sooner. He picked up the last one and studied the cover, stroking the spine with his thumb. He swallowed and looked up to meet her eyes, she hadn't noticed the first one, clearly, otherwise her attention would be on it and its contents instead of on him and waiting for an explanation. Oh - He hadn't said that aloud. Hadn't said anything aloud for the past fifteen minutes or so really, not like he should have been had the Illness been acting up. So that meant it had been a false alarm, right? But it had _seemed_ like it was for real... Ah, maybe it was just the injury that was throwing him off his game. But then again... Maybe not.

"Books. Rachima Sensei gave them to me this afternoon after lunch. He said he came across them while he was researching something, I'm not sure _what_ he was researching since he didn't tell me, but I'm sure he was out of his element - these are _history _books and he's a _scientist_."

Kagome rolled her eyes at him, "I _know_ they're _books_, what I meant was why do you have them? And how did you _really_ get that wound?" Yes, she, Kagome Higurashi, time-traveling reincarnated miko who hunted demons daily and fell in love with a hanyou, was skeptical of what he'd told her before, that he'd gotten the wound in a battle with Naraku. But she couldn't help it; sometimes she still found it hard to believe that _she_ could travel back in time, so why would she just suddenly believe what _he_ was implying?

Raidon sighed, honestly, once he figured out she was able to go back in time as well, he'd figured it wouldn't be hard to convince her of his own time-traveling abilities, but apparently he'd been wrong - something that didn't happen all too often in this time period. Usually, he wouldn't have minded telling her the whole story - it'd be nice to be able to talk about this sort of thing with someone who experienced it as well instead of people who couldn't possibly understand where he was coming from - but his mother and sisters were probably at Uchigo Lab waiting for his arrival so he could fill them in on his latest adventures and they could record them and ask him questions... They had all promised they wouldn't publish anything about it in any scientific journals or anything, but they still did the whole scientific routine, coming at what he'd been doing from a logical and probable direction and assuming he'd do the same when he gave his answers. For the most part, it was just a really boring process that made him dread showing up at home in the first place, but he went through it, not because it was part of the deal, but because he knew that if he decided to remain in the past after he graduated high school, he'd probably never see his family again, so he just wanted the memories of them being in their element, even if it meant he had to suffer through an hour of pure boredom every now and then.

"I _told_ you already, I got the books from Rachima Sensei and I got the wound in a battle with Naraku. Look, Kagome," He pointed at the cover of the first book, the one entitled _A Feudal Fairytale._ Kagome let out a gasp, her hand flying to her mouth, indicating that she had finally noticed it. On the cover of that one, there was a picture of her, InuYasha, Kikyou, and Naraku all reaching for the Shikon no Tama, which was located on the middle of the book. "I know you can go back in time, what I don't know is _how_. And I also know that you know who Naraku is and that I'm telling the truth about getting hurt in a battle with him. That was the first time I'd encountered him, but he's a snaky bastard, ain't he?" He smirked slightly, pleased that he had finally gotten her attention. But he wasn't getting the entire desired effect, instead of listening to him now, she was leafing through the pages with a shaky hand, looking for answers she didn't know existed.

"I haven't looked through it yet, but I don't think I'll be needing that one, so you can keep it if you want to. Right now - Kagome!" He said sharply, taking the book and setting it on the bed, she scowled at him, but then remembered who it was she was looking at and dropped it. "It's okay, just because I'm a year older than you doesn't mean you're not allowed to get irritated with me or mad at me; we're not in school right now, so it just doesn't matter. And even if we were, it still wouldn't. Can we just... I dunno, focus on _this_ right now? It's really important and I don't have a lot of time; I have to get home soon if I want to go back tomorrow." He explained, drumming his fingers on the spine of the book he was still caressing. What was so special about that book? Why was he holding it like it might break or something if he let it go? Kagome shook her head, one thing at a time.

"Fine, okay. What do you want to talk about, then?" She asked, though she had to know the answer already, because she herself wanted to talk about the same thing. It isn't every day you meet someone with the same secret as you, after all.

"Um, try _everything_, but we won't - Hey, why don't you come back to my place with me? We can talk on the way and when we get to my place, you can sit in on things while I talk about what happened while I was over there with my mom and sisters. And then, once they find out _you_ can go back as well, they'll have a few questions for _you_. What d'ya say?" He asked, glancing down at the book cover. Kagome considered the offer, she _did_ have questions she wanted answered and she was sure he could say the same thing... What harm could going over to his house do? _If_ InuYasha came over to apologize, which she doubted he'd do, he could just hang out with Souta until she got back. He'd give her the third degree once she did get back, of course, but that was a bridge she was willing to cross when she came to it. Besides, he yelled at her all the time anyway over stupid little things, might as well give him a semi-decent reason this time around.

"Yeah, okay." She nodded enthusiastically. Raidon smiled brightly at her and asked for his backpack. Once she handed it to him, he picked up _Secrets of the Shards _and placed it in his pack and then glanced down at the one in his hands, _A History Lesson, _and stuffed it in there as well. If she looked hard enough, Kagome could have sworn she saw a flash of immense sadness illuminate his face, but it was gone before she could fully place it.

Ten minutes later, the two were walking out the door of her house. She planned on walking him by the Well House to explain vaguely that she was able to use the Well it housed to jump between the times. It wasn't very scientific, but it was the truth, which did seem to apply in most cases. Just as she looked from Raidon to the Well House, however, her eyes fell on a figure lying on the ground, one with silver hair, dog ears, dressed all in red...

"InuYasha!" She cried, running forward and kneeling down next to him. Raidon was at her side instantly, he didn't know what was going on, but it couldn't be good, that much he was sure of. She turned him over onto his back and noticed his injuries instantly. He was bleeding. A lot. She glanced up at Raidon, wondering just how this had happened between the short time she'd left and now. Wait, how long had he been lying there? Oh God, he would have been lying there all night had Raidon not come by! "Help me get him inside! I'll explain later, just... Help me!"

* * *

><p>Eh... Not the best thing I've ever written... I mean, is <em>any<em> of this making _any_ sense to _anyone_ besides _me_? Am I moving things along a little too fast for your taste? Eh, oh well. I mean, _I_ know where this is going and what I'm doing, so you'll just have to trust me on this.

Anyway, Autumn is in the air! Can you smell it? I absolutely LOVE Fall! I woke up this morning and my room smelled like Fall. If that makes any sense. I just love Fall. My dad says there's no such thing as Fall anymore, just Summer and Winter; it goes from hot to cold instantly. I disagree. Today, it's not too hot, and it's not too cold, it's just nice out. There's a nice breeze that carries the promise of cooler weather soon to come. I mean, yeah, Autumn means school, but so what? I'm home schooled so I don't have to worry about having to sit in a prison cell for six hours, longing to be outside and enjoy the nice weather while it lasts. Plus, I don't even have to start my school work for another eleven days. So I'm going to make the most of it.

Peace out,  
>~Hisa-Ai~<p> 


End file.
